Mirage of the royals

The story of a Persian warrior princess who overcomes her father's tyranny and threatens to destroy the kingdom with her will, while finding her true love and purpose in the most unexpected place.
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Chapters:

The door was closed. Her family was beyond those doors. She could
feel it; she could save them. And she wrenched open the door
handle.

The first thing she saw was Salar's profile and felt shocked. He
wasn't supposed to arrive until this morning. Her heart swooped
in her throat as her eyes traveled to the man standing idly
beside him and her world suddenly grew very quiet. It felt like
all was moving in slow motion. She took in the situation as she
came forward. She could see Abid slumped against a table. He was
clutching onto his side, the side of his robes drenched with
blood, his expression of a man in great pain. The man standing
beside Salar turned and Mirage discovered that the man was her
own father and for a moment, she felt happy. He was alive. Then
she saw why he was slumping forward. King Sarosh's legs were
wilted, he was holding onto his heart. The reason was a dagger
sticking out of his chest where his heart was. And around that
dagger's hilt were Salar's fingers, tightly holding onto her
father's fingers. Her father's eyes drooped, the blood oozed out
from around the dagger's blade. Salar was looking away from her
at Abid.

That room was the only one not lit, and as Mirage took in the
scene, she heard a blood-curdling scream from a distance. Salar
turned to look at the source of the scream and in shock, let go
of the dagger when he saw Mirage. Mirage heard the scream again
and in her mind, she felt irritated. Whoever was screaming really
must keep it down. Mirage's face contorted as she looked down at
her father.

She couldn't accept it though. She saw Salar move towards her,
his hands raised in surrender and suddenly, he was pushed away
from her by an unknown force. He staggered back and his face went
white. All of a sudden, it all came swooping back to her. Her
mind wound itself into place and she heard the abrupt cut of
noise fill her brain. She looked up again. Her father was on the
ground, clutching onto his chest, the dagger still there, blood
draining away from him. Abid struggled to stand up in the corner,
holding his side. And in front of her was Salar. Dear, sweet
Salar who knew he had King Sarosh's blood on his hands,
literally.

Mirage realized that the screams she had heard had actually come
from her. She was the one who had pushed Salar away from her.
Falling down beside him, she looked at her father. Blood was
staining his shirt, and he was holding onto the dagger as if his
life depended on it.

Mirage looked down at her hands. They were shaking. As she inched
near her father, she saw his droopy eyes focus on her. He wasn't
going to make it. She knew as much. He couldn't breathe. She
could see from the wound that someone had tried to pull the
dagger out but her father hadn't let them.

Mirage heard herself call out to him as she saw the light behind
his eyes dim. He was leaving her. Her voice didn't make any
sense. She blubbered. Tears streamed down her face. She couldn't
breathe as she heaved. She heard a crash sound from outside and
the yells increased, but reminded her of jubilation. It didn't
matter to her though.

She took her father's hand and looked into his eyes. She had
heard that when a person was dying, their entire life flashed
before their eyes. But at that moment, while she was holding onto
her dying father, all she could think of was her entire life with
her father. She had been wrong. Everything that she was, it was
because of her father. Even if she did hate him, this moment was
one that would torture her for the rest of her remaining life.

King Sarosh looked into his young daughter's eyes and squeezed
her hand. Even near death, he still wanted to tell his daughter
that she was his most beloved child; he was just sorry he never
got a chance to tell her that. But all he did was take her hand,
and with one last burst of strength, place it on the hilt of the
dagger. And with that, as Salar's face swam into his line of
vision behind Mirage, King Sarosh breathed out, never to come
back.

Mirage squeezed her father's hand and waited for him to respond.
She could not trust herself to speak. But he never squeezed her
hand back. From her depths, she felt a wail form and suddenly,
her breathing stopped as she screamed. King Sarosh was dead. Her
father was dead.

Her wails of despair echoed across the room and came back to her,
three-fold. Her hand slipped from the dagger. Shaking her
father's shoulders, his hand fell from her lap and to the cold
ground. Mirage felt a great pain in her gut as if something was
being ripped from inside her with a giant hook.

She found her voice. "PAPA! PAPA!" She screamed as she shook him
hard. King Sarosh's glassy eyes stayed on Salar who looked back
ghostly. The king's chest didn't move. Tears splashed down on
King Sarosh's face. Moving closer, Mirage pulled her father's
head onto her lap and cradled it, her cries increasing as her
hands became coated with his blood as she gently pulled him to
her. She could feel the room fill with people. There was
shuffling as she howled in grief. Shakily, she reached to the
dagger and pulled it out. The feeling in her hand was of pushing
a rock out of a muddy patch of sand. She blinked and cleared her
eyes. The dagger was common, long and curved with a sharp cutting
edge. A cutlass. The penny dropped. She pulled the dagger to a
side.

She felt someone come behind her. She heard sobbing. Numerous
voices. Women. She felt a person kneel down beside her. It was
Queen Nadira. Staring at the dead body of her husband, she felt
her soul rip away from her body and she staggered, falling back.
Her older daughters supported her as she fell, Alana's sobbing
uncontrollable. Aria stared blankly at her father, her own night
gown stained with blood. Salar felt someone grab hold of him and
let them pull his arms behind him.

Sepehr kneeled down beside Mirage as a couple of soldiers helped
Abid get up but couldn't. They took Abid away on a make-shift
stretcher as Mirage's guards cordoned off the room. Soldiers
shifted to the main hall, shocked to their very core at what they
were witnessing. Salar stayed still against Rostam and Azin's
grip on his shoulders, their glares of pure loathing and hatred.
Salar couldn't say anything because he didn't know what to say.

Sepehr gently pulled Mirage away from King Sarosh. She resisted.
He didn't bother her again and stood up. Turning, he started
consulting with Sam about what to do with Salar when he saw Sam
gesture to something behind him. He turned and saw Mirage looking
up at him, her expression blank.

"Take him to the dungeons. Make sure no one hears of this." Her
voice seemed much calmer in contrast to her current situation.

Salar started struggling as he was being pulled away. "Mirage,
No! You have to listen to me; I didn't kill your father. I was
framed."

Mirage didn't respond and turned her back to him.

Salar shouted. "MIRAGE, PLEASE. IT WASN'T ME. IT WAS…" his
sentence stopped. Mirage; letting go of her father had stood up.
In a flash, she was in front of Salar, the muzzle of her gun
pointing straight-blank into his face.

She heard a sudden frightened hush around her. She looked into
her husband's eyes. They were pleading.

"Never say my name again." She said, her voice rasping. "Never
look at me, never speak about me. Don't even think about me. You
are no longer my husband." She breathed. "You're dead."

Salar looked into her eyes. She could see it. She could see his
side of the story. And she wanted to believe him. She wanted to
believe he was innocent. But the evidence spoke for itself.

Salar was pulled away without any protest. He wordlessly let the
men shove him out of the room. Mirage felt her tears start anew.
She dropped her arm and shut her eyes tightly, willing for it all
to go away. So this is what Abid meant about sacrifice.

Mirage felt the pain in her gut increase. It was 100 times worse
than when she had been tortured. The future seemed bleak for her.

She looked up. Sepehr was approaching her cautiously. She didn't
realize she still had her gun held tightly in her hand.
Immediately, she released it. It swung on her finger and Sepehr
swiped away from her. She felt miserable.

Someone gently took hold of Mirage's hands and dimly, she turned
to see Tatiana's face loom near her. Tatiana pulled Mirage away
as the doctors swarmed into the room. Nothing they could do now.

She felt Tatiana pull her into her arms and she allowed it. She
just didn't feel anything in her heart anymore. Tatiana let go of
Mirage and she stood to a side, feeling numb. Her mother and
sisters shuffled up to her.

Unexpectedly, she felt her mother take her hand. Mirage's own
bloodied hand slipped into her mother's clean one as a stretcher
arrived for the once great King Sarosh. The body was placed onto
the stretcher and taken away. The floor seemed undisturbed but
for a large stain of blood where her father's body once was. With
a squeeze, Queen Nadira let go of Mirage's hand and lurched away,
held by her two daughters.

Mirage looked around vaguely. She needed to get away from here.
Far away. Mirage pulled on Tatiana's hand when she suddenly
stopped. She suddenly didn't feel so good, which was a big thing.
She felt faint. Like the wind had been knocked out of her.
Tatiana supported Mirage as she swayed. That was when she heard a
sharp gasp and saw Tatiana look down in horror. Her mother
stopped in her tracks by the door and turned to look back, her
face awash with fear. Mirage raised her eyebrows at them. Had
someone else been killed behind her? Had Tatiana just spotted the
body?

But no. Tatiana overcame her fear and shook Mirage.

"Mirage! Look at your legs." She yelped and Mirage looked down.

She seemed to be bleeding profusely. Funny, she didn't remember
the cut being so deep. It hadn't affected her so. She didn't even
remember getting it. The men backed away as a lady doctor came
sprinting back to see what the commotion was and stopped in her
tracks. Her eyes went from the young queen to the large puddle of
blood on the floor where the queen had collapsed. Then back to
the blood seeping down from Mirage's legs onto the stone floor.

The doctor stepped forward. "Your Majesty, are you hurt anywhere?
I mean physically?" She added awkwardly.

Mirage thought. Revelation flooded her. So that's what it was.
She had read quite a bit about it but had never thought she'd
experience it. Flashes and memories came to her. The constant
bitterness, her bad moods, her over-bearing tiredness, her
constant need for food, her vomiting, and her bloated body all
started showing up from the moment her and Salar and consummated
the marriage.

And now, she couldn't do anything about it. She had drunk alcohol
like a sailor, worked and stayed up late as much as she wanted,
taking more stress then she could handle, and she had been quite
vigorous in her visits to the various locations, climbing
hundreds of steps and participating in racing horses. She had
dismissed the pain in her stomach which had started some weeks
ago as simple indigestion. Never mind that she hadn't thought
that her time of the month hadn't come in three months, she had
just stored this thought away for later reviewing and forgotten
about it. Now, she had to face the facts.

Her tears hadn't stopped flowing, and yet, her voice was strong.
It needed to be. She needed to be. Turning to the female doctor,
she took a sharp breath.